Måns Zelmerlöw is Sweden’s Hero!

Melodifestivalen is over, and Måns Zelmerlöw has been selected to represent Sweden with the song ‘Heroes’. He was given 12 points by 9 out of the 11 juries and came top in the Swedish vote. I’ll post a full review of the show when I can!

This week, I’ll do my review in the order the songs finished:

1. Måns Zelmerlöw – Heroes (288p) – A very deserving winner, his performance was flawless, as always. The crowd always gave him the biggest cheer. After receiving almost a perfect set of twelves from the juries, I think he must’ve felt on the plane to Vienna already!

2. Jon Henrik Fjällgren – Jag är fri (Manne leam frijje) (139p) – This seemed to be like Marmite for the European juries, with some putting it in their top three and others giving either a few or no points at all. However, the Swedish public stepped in and gave Jon Henrik second place. The stage performance had some nice changes, but still the cultural heritage elements shone through. In a way, I’d have liked to see Jon go to Vienna…

3. Mariette – Don’t Stop Believing (102p) – The dark horse of the evening was loved by the European juries but only received 28 points from the Swedish public. Her place of 11th in the running order may have helped to some extent, but her vocals were much stronger than in her semi final and the staging was quite mysterious, as it was a few weeks ago.

4. Hasse Andersson – Guld och gröna skogar (78p) – Europe didn’t like it, Sweden loved it. After only taking 10 points from the European juries, Hasse scored a respectable 68 by coming in third place in the public vote, making him the most successful contestant from andra chasen. He put some extra strength into his vocals, although this high a placing was quite surprising for me.

5. Eric Saade – Sting (77p) – The juries did this song more help than the public. It had been second-favourite for such a long time and I was surprised to see Sweden ‘desert’ it as they did, only giving 29 points. I did find the performance to be a little bit off-key in places, but it was still good overall, Eric’s experience shone through as well.

6. Linus Svenning – Forever Starts Today (59p) – Another andra chansen qualifier who was helped by the European juries. The staging hadn’t changed much from his performance the previous week, apart from his shirt, which seemed to be white, presumably to add contrast!

7. Isa – Don’t Stop (56p) – I counted 56 hip swings during the performance, so maybe 1 hip swing equalled 1 point? She had made quite a few nice adaptations to the song to make it more camera-friendly, which worked wonders on the juries, giving her 38 points in all, including tens from Estonia and the UK.

8. Samir & Viktor – Groupie (49p) – I felt that this was a song that the juries were going to love or hate. Only 5 of the juries gave the song any points at all, and those points ranged from 1 from the UK and 10 from Belgium. Despite the heightened cheers from the crowds inside the Friends Arena, this song only managed to score 20 points from the viewing public.

9. Magnus Carlsson – Möt mig i Gamla stan (28p) – Unfortunately, this song barely got off the ground. Despite being in the top two in its semi-final, neither the juries nor the public favoured it over the others. Its only real highlight was scoring 8 points from Cyprus. I didn’t notice any changes to the song either, and it didn’t stand out compared to all the grander performances tonight.

10. JTR – Building It Up (25p) – Originally, it was suggested that this song had only advanced to the final because it got the teenage vote from a semi-final without many ‘teenagery’ songs. This proved to be the case, as Sweden only gave it 4 points, which must be an all-time low. Belgium defied convention once again and gave it 8 points, but that was about it for this song.

11. Jessica Andersson – Can’t Hurt Me Now (23p) – The only traditional ballad of the night received 15 from the juries and 8 from the Swedish public. The performance was quite nice, but I think part of its downfall was that it didn’t have a melody that gets stuck in your head, as well as the tendency towards more upbeat songs Sweden has shown this year.

12. Dinah Nah – Make Me (La La La) (22p) – Dinah gets my Sophia Patsalides Award of the evening. In my opinion, she deserved to do much better. There wasn’t anything wrong with her performance, and as I’ve said before, this could be so easily played in clubs, thanks to its electronic rhythm. Malta gave her 10, and I wished that a few other juries would’ve done so too!

So, now Melodifestivalen’s over for another year, do you agree with the result, did any of the results surprise you? Also, how do you think Heroes will do in Eurovision in May?

One thought on “Måns Zelmerlöw is Sweden’s Hero!”

I have to say I think that Mans is a thoroughly deserving winner! I’ve loved him since he first entered melodifestivalen with Cara Mia, however I honestly believe this is his best song to date! Love the production on this one too! As always Sweden doesn’t disappont! 🙂 Though I must say it was one of the toughest finals to call, alot of really strong songs!